


Chained

by BloodMoonWitch



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, M/M, Muriel’s POV, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Other, i dont even know what this is let alone how to tag it, idk lucios just a dick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:26:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21950602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodMoonWitch/pseuds/BloodMoonWitch
Summary: Lucio thinks he’s broken the apprentice, thinks that he can break Muriel too and make him his executioner again, but oh, how arrogance clouds the minds of weak men.But this isn’t a story about Lucio, is it?No, our protagonist is a bit . . . Softer.
Relationships: Apprentice/Muriel (The Arcana), Muriel (The Arcana)/Original Character(s), Muriel (The Arcana)/Reader, Muriel (The Arcana)/You
Comments: 2
Kudos: 110





	Chained

**Author's Note:**

> I . . . don’t know what this is. I’ve just had this dark ass idea in my head for days now and I just couldn’t help it. I needed to see it. And do I regret it? Yes oh holy shit I regret everything because I hurt my sweet mountain baby but its too late now. 
> 
> I made everything better I promise this was originally much, much darker but I just couldn’t do that to my baby boy. Also, Muriel POV cause I wanted to

I had spent weeks in a cell, dark and cold beneath the earth somewhere. There was a fight, a fight I knew we couldn’t win, but I couldn’t leave them. We had tried so hard . . . and lost. 

For weeks, Lucio came down every day, the only method I had of telling time, and stood by the iron bars of my prison, asking me the same question over and over, though he never really phrased it as if I had a choice. 

“Fight for me.” 

Most days, I didn't even give him an answer, didn't even look at him, just stared straight ahead into a dirt wall. My chains were gone, thrown away into a frozen land far away from here, and he would never trap me again. But some days, I just had to ask even though I knew he would only laugh and walk away. 

“Where are they?” 

This cycle seemed to last forever, until one day, after he asked his question and I asked mine, the door to the cell swung open lazily, and I was yanked to stand by some invisible force. 

“Do you really want to know?” he sneered. He pulled me with him, my feet moving on their own no matter how hard I tried to turn and run in the opposite direction. We walked up a flight of spiral stairs into a massive cave, stopping at the opposite end in front of a dais with a single, overly extravagant throne placed on top. Turning to me, he let out a short, nerve wracking laugh as if he had told himself a joke. 

“My Scourge, I have something you want.” He snapped his human finger, flinging himself back to sit crookedly on the golden throne behind him. From somewhere behind the stone wall to his right, they walked out. 

I lunged forward, fighting with all I had against the magic that chained my feet to the ground, but it was no use. I was forced to watch as their half naked form practically sauntered over to Lucio, draping themselves on the arm of his throne. A transparent mauve material lined in gold draped over their shoulders and twisted around their waist, not even covering their naked body, just decoration like the strands of gold in their hair or the excessive amounts of delicate gold chain that wrapped around their neck, arms, torso, and legs, that didn't connect to anything, but bound them to Lucio just as mine had. What unsettled me the most was the look on their face. They looked almost . . . content?

“I’ve tamed your pretty little kitten,” he said, placing his disgusting metal hand way too high up on their thigh, but they just looked passively down at it as if it was nothing. “They’re mine now.” He grinned, watching me closely as I’m sure he enjoyed the rage he saw on my face. I clenched my jaw, trying so hard to keep him from seeing just how badly I wanted to chop his head off. 

But then he pulled them into his lap, spread their legs open over his and grasped the inside of their thighs, and I couldn’t stop the growl that erupted from my chest as I tried in vain to break free again. They just sat there in his lap, head tilted to the side as if waiting for him to bite or kiss it, completely submissive and obedient to whatever he wanted. 

“Now,” he began again, “It would be fun to make you watch us, to take them right in front of you and have you listen to every moan and whimper, but I have something even more fun in mind.” He whispered something in their ear, and they grinned but it didn’t reach their eyes, it wasn’t them. It gave me some small ounce of hope, that maybe they were fighting him and trying to come back to me, but all hope fell away when they stood and walked over to me. 

For one, heart stopping moment, I got to look into their eyes, and I saw . . . nothing. No hit of anything even remotely close so the person I had known, had loved . . . 

I was pulled to sit on a chair I hadn’t noticed behind me, wrists restrained to the armrests, but that didn't stop me from clenching my fists. They wrapped their arms loosely around my neck, legs spreading again as they moved to straddle my lap. It shouldn’t have felt that good, their touch on my skin after so long without it, and the press of their chest against mine. Mostly, I felt an overwhelming surge of guilt. They were just being used to torture me, they couldn’t control their own body, and all I could do was sit and let it happen. 

I wanted to cry when they ground their core against mine, shutting my eyes and shoving my face in their neck as if I could hide from them that way. They continued to caress me, trailing their hands down my chest, in my hair, as far down as they could reach on my back, and all over. It felt sickening to be watched by him, and no matter how far into their neck I buried my face, I could still feel him watching us. 

“Fight for me again, and you can have them back.” 

My first reaction was to tell him to fuck off. I never wanted to be that man again, to kill again . . . But the closer they got to me, the more their hands ran over my chest, the more it hurt because I knew this wasn't them. This was Lucio’s magic controlling them, forcing them to do this. As if he could sense where my thoughts had gone, he spoke again. 

“I’d free them,” he taunted, “They could leave here, or stay with you, I don’t really care. I wouldn’t lay another finger on them.” For a moment, I felt like I might say yes. The alternative was both of us being trapped here forever, Lucio doing god knows what to them while I remained trapped in that cell, unable to do anything . . . 

“Either way you choose, I get a toy to play with.”

Something changed. 

I felt as their once calm and even breaths turned slightly ragged, as if they had just emerged from a fight, but they never stopped moving on top of me. Their face quickly moved to my neck, making a show of biting and licking until they reached my ear. 

“I'm here,” was all they said. I was thankful that my face was hidden, or else Lucio would have surely seen the overwhelming amount of relief and hope I felt. I quickly steeled myself just before they fell out of my lap and onto the floor in between my legs, running almost apologetic hands up my thighs before looking up to finally meet my eyes again. If I hadn’t been ready, I would have cried at the sight of them. 

Rage that matched my own, determination and strength, but most importantly, I was finally seeing them again. That fire that I thought had died had returned with a vengeance, and if Lucio wasn’t so caught up in his own arrogance, he would have noticed the gold chains slowly disappearing from their body. 

“I. Am. Not. Your. Toy.” they gritted out, swinging around to stand and face him. Their entire body glowed with their magic, set free as the last of the chains vanished. “And neither is Muriel.” As if their words were the key, I felt the restraints on me fade away, and I quickly stood up and took my place beside them. 

For once, his arrogance faltered, fading into fear and disbelief. He stood, furious and looking like he was about to use his magic to lash out at us with a flash of his golden claw, but they swung first. They held their hands out low at their sides, muscles clenched and magic pulsing as a bright white blade of energy soared towards Lucio. A howl, violent and angry and blood curdling resounded in the cave, but it hadn’t come from Lucio. 

They screamed, not in pain or anguish, but with pure, unadulterated rage. Weeks of docility and being controlled had built up a fury inside of them, and it was finally being let out. Their aura expanded, bright and warm, filling up the entire cave with light until I couldn’t see anything. I called out to them, but my voice was drowned out by the ringing in my ears. 

Slowly, the light faded, but the warmth remained. I soon realized that it was because I was standing outside, a bright morning sun greeting me as I looked up to a sky I had missed more than I realized. Breathing in the fresh air, I quickly looked around me to see where I was. It was the edge of the forest by Vesuvia, and as I turned, I felt oddly grateful to see the city behind me. Relief flooded my senses as I saw them, kneeling and hunched over on the ground, still mostly naked and breathing heavily. I called their name again, running on clumsy feet to fall to the ground beside them. 

“Are you alright?” I breath, almost afraid to touch their shaking body, but the second they saw me, they leapt forward, throwing their arms around my neck and squeezing tight. I practically collapsed against them, finally wrapping my arms around them and nuzzling my nose in their hair. Breathing in deeply, I could feel my entire body relax after weeks of being on edge. 

“Muriel,” they sighed, shaky as they cried into my shoulder. I sat down properly on the ground and gently placed them in my lap, wrapping my cloak around them and holding their head close to my chest as they wept. I remembered what Lucio had threatened to do before he sent them to me, and a fresh swell of anger began to build up in my heart. 

“He didn't- I swear if he ever hurt you-” I tried to keep my voice calm, but just the thought of his hands touching any part of them made me want to dig with my bare hands back down into whatever hellhole he was inhabiting and strangle him.   
  
“No, Muriel, I promise he didn't touch me. I’m just-” Their breath kept hitching as their tears didn't stop falling. A trembling hand reached up to touch my cheek, and they took a few deep, long breaths before trying to speak again. 

“He kept me in a cell, and every day he came and told me about how he was torturing you, telling me that he made you fight again and that you thought that I was dead and . . .” They had to stop again, and I pressed my forehead against theirs. “I thought I had lost you . . .” They sounded so heartbroken, pained at remembering, and I felt my own eyes tearing up. “I thought that we would never find each other again . . . but Lucio was arrogant. He made a mistake. All it took was one look at you and I knew that none of it was true. You still looked so strong and defiant and . . . and so I fought him. With everything I had. He had tried some weak attempt at mind controlling magic, but he was sloppy and flawed. He didn’t stand a chance once I saw you again.” Something like pride welled up in my chest, and I wrapped my arms even tighter around them and nuzzled my face against theirs. But of course, thoughts of Lucio flooded my mind as if that asshole could sense the peace that had finally started settling into my bones and found some way to disrupt it.

“What happened to him?” I couldn’t even say his name. 

“He’s trapped somewhere between life and death, stuck in that cave until we can figure out what to do with him.” Part of me wished for him to be dead, but I was mostly grateful that their hands weren’t stained with blood like mine. “But what happened to you? What did he really do?” I told them about about the questions, about mine and Lucio’s usual reactions until today. 

“But it’s over, now.’’ I moved to kiss the palm of their hand still on my cheek, each touch reviving a piece of my soul I had let wither and die. “We’re safe.” We stared into each other's eyes for an eternity, warmth and love and peace and hope dancing between us, and I felt myself start to smile wider and more genuinely than I had in years, maybe in my entire life. And when they smiled at me . . . 

“I’m still naked.” We laughed, laughed until tears formed in our eyes again, laughed and cried until we couldn’t tell if the tears were from the laughing or from relief or from the lingering sadness that had weighed us down for so long, but we laughed. They laughed, a beautiful sound I never thought I would hear again, and for a long time, we just sat there in the forest under a beautiful blue sky and held each other. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this months ago but just got up the energy to edit it and post it so . . . Merry Christmas? Happy holidays?


End file.
